Election 2024: Discontent In Haryana BJP After Second Candidate List; Former Deputy Speaker, Party Spokesperson Resign

After the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) second candidate list for the Haryana assembly elections scheduled for 5 October, many senior leaders including the party's state unit office bearers resigned.

Vice president of Haryana BJP and former deputy speaker Santosh Yadav resigned after she was denied a ticket from the Ateli assembly constituency in Mahendragarh district.

Santosh Yadav won in Ateli in 2014. However, this time, the BJP has fielded Gurgaon MP Rao Inderjit Singh's daughter Aarti Rao, cutting the ticket of the incumbent MLA Sitaram.

Yadav alleged that the party is neglecting dedicated workers who worked at the grassroots level and giving tickets to those who neither worked for the party nor were the citizens of the respective assembly constituency.

Executive member of the Haryana BJP unit Shiv Kumar Mehta also resigned as he was denied a ticket in Narnaul, from where the party has fielded incumbent MLA Om Prakash Yadav.

Similarly, state BJP spokesperson Satyavrat Shastri resigned on being denied a ticket and alleged that the party moved away from its values and was under the influence of "opposite ideology" people.

Even after the first list of candidates with 67 names, many senior leaders including former Haryana minister Bachan Singh Arya resigned as he was denied a ticket from Safidon, where he lost in 2019.

The BJP has instead fielded former Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) MLA Ram Kumar Gautam, who joined the party earlier this month. Gautam had won in 2005 too on a BJP ticket.

Two Haryana ministers, Ranjit Singh Chautala and Bishamber Singh Valmiki, also resigned after being denied tickets along with Ratia MLA Lakshman Napa, who was replaced by former MP Sunita Duggal.

The BJP also took note of some rebellion as it replaced Kawaljeet Singh Ajrana with Jai Bhagwan Sharma in the Pehowa seat in second list after the latter's supporters protested following the first list.

In total, the BJP has declared 87 candidates till now. Haryana has 90 assembly seats and it is believed that the party might have left three seats for its smaller ally parties like the Haryana Lokhit Party (HLP).

HLP MLA Gopal Kanda from Sirsa has extended support to the BJP and the party might have left Sirsa seat for him. The other two remaining seats are of Faridabad (NIT) and Mahendragarh.